"I'll be right back with the ladies," promised Mr. Dunstan. Joe began to oil the engine, while Jed made a dive for his cleanest white duck suit.

Tom carefully brushed his uniform; he had secured another coat, at the owner's expense, since leaving that other behind in the tight grip of Jonas French. It was a trim, natty-looking boat's crew that met the ladies when Mr. Dunstan brought them aboard. Mrs. Lester was a woman of forty, still young looking and handsome. The girls-Elsie, aged seventeen, and Jessie, fifteen, looked extremely sweet and dainty in their white dresses, blue reefers and yachting caps.

Mr. Dunstan left them almost immediately.

"Shall I take you aft to the deck chairs?" inquired Tom.

Mrs. Lester a.s.sented, but the girls declared that, if they might, they much preferred to remain on the bridge deck and watch the running of the boat. To this Tom gladly a.s.sented.

The "Meteor" slipped gracefully away from her pier, then turned and headed over in the direction of Muskeget Island. This was a course that would keep them easily in sight of the Dunstan flagpole.

"You must look upon us as splendid nuisances?" suggested Elsie.

"Yes, to that, if you'll leave out the word 'nuisances,'" smiled Captain Tom gallantly.

"But to be asked to take the boat out, after all your hard and daring work last night," added Jessie.

"Hard work comes naturally in a life on the sea," Tom replied. "And we had our sleep, after the night's work."

"But what fearful danger you went through. Mr. Dunstan was telling us all about it, as he heard it from his man over at Wood's Hole," said Elsie. "What fearful danger you were in!"

"We didn't think much about it at the time," remarked Halstead modestly.

"When one has had to stand at the wheel of a motor boat, on the broad ocean, in all sorts of weather, and when he has to win out and bring his craft and pa.s.sengers back safely, he doesn't meet much that he calls dangerous."

It was so quietly spoken that both girls glanced quickly, admiringly at the young captain. Joe, standing at the hatchway, looked as though he were thinking of nothing but the revolutions per minute that the propeller shaft was making.

"It must just be a splendid life!" declared Jessie impulsively. "I wish I were a boy."

"Some day," laughed Tom, "you may be pleased that you're not."

"Yet it must be fine," pursued Elsie, "to look over this handsome boat and feel that you're man enough to be absolute master of her and to feel that you can handle and control her under any conditions."

"I couldn't," Halstead declared seriously. "I can steer the boat as long as the steering gear isn't damaged or broken, that is, if the boat is under headway. But let there be an accident to the steering mechanism or let the motor refuse to drive the propeller, and suppose the accident to be of such a nature that we three boys couldn't make the necessary repairs, how much control do you think I'd have over this craft? How much of a master do you think I'd be? Miss Lester, certain men have used their brains to design boat hulls. Other men have invented and perfected the propeller mechanism. Then finally other men, out of their brains, constructed the gasoline motor. We boys didn't have anything to do with any of those triumphs of skill. All we've had to do is to learn how to be handy with the handling of other people's discoveries."

"That doesn't sound very impressive, does it?" laughed Jessie.

"It isn't," declared Joe, taking part in the talk for the first time.

"Down at the mouth of the Kennebec River there's a whole club of boys who have learned to do just what we do."

"You may try to make out that you're not brave and manly," laughed Elsie, "but I shall keep on believing that you are."

"That's why I wish, sometimes, I could be a boy and grow up to be a man," added Jessie.

"I guess a woman can find enough chance to show bravery," Tom answered thoughtfully.

"Oh, how the boat is rolling," cried Elsie, lurching as the "Meteor"

rolled over to port.

Jed, who had just lowered the gla.s.s after a look at the Dunstan flagstaff, caught her lightly by one elbow, steadying her.

"If you brace your feet, just this way," explained Jed, ill.u.s.trating the idea with his own feet, "the roll won't carry you off your balance."

Both girls practiced it, laughing gayly over having learned a new trick on shipboard.

"Mr. Dunstan said something about your going only a certain distance away from his place," observed Miss Elsie presently.

"We must keep within sight of the flagstaff; that is, we mustn't go so far that we'd fail to see a signal through the gla.s.s," Tom explained.

"How much further can you go, then?" inquired Miss Jessie.

"Do you see that point over on Muskeget Island?"-pointing.

"Yes."

"We can go a couple of miles beyond there and still be able to make out signals."

"My, it's getting windier and rougher, isn't it?" asked Elsie presently.

"I think there's a good blow coming up before long," Halstead answered.

"If you wish, we can turn about and head back toward the pier."

"Not unless you really want to," protested the girl. "I'm enjoying this trip too much."

"Then we'll pa.s.s Muskeget and cruise up and down, instead of going further away from Nantucket," Tom proposed. "The wind is shifting around to northeast, which promises a goodish kind of blow at this time of the year. If we should get very rough weather I'd like to be where I can run in with you quickly, instead of taking chances out here."

"Can the 'Meteor' go faster than she's going now?"

"Well, she's making about fourteen miles," smiled the young captain.

"Her best speed is about twice that."

They ran out past Muskeget Island, then turned back on their course, going nearer to Nantucket. They were now about north of Muskeget, but gradually pa.s.sing the island, when Tom began to notice that something was wrong with the speed of the boat.

"What's up with the engine, Joe?" Halstead called down to his now invisible chum.

"That's what I'm trying to find out," Joe retorted. "I don't like the motor's behavior, and it's getting worse every minute."

"I should say so," muttered Tom.

"There isn't any danger of a serious accident, is there?" asked Miss Elsie quickly.

"Probably not," was the young skipper's reply. "But we don't know, and can't, until we find out what's wrong."

"Oh, we ought to hurry back," shivered Miss Elsie. "We ought to get in before there's any accident."

"Why, provided none of us were drowned, an accident would be something worth remembering," laughed Jessie mischievously.

"Jessie Lester, how dare you say so?" demanded her sister, looking somewhat shocked.

"Say," bawled up the now excited voice of Joe Dawson, "this is a tough one!"